Generalized Self-Efficacy, Holland Theme Self-Efficacy, and Academic Performance

Abstract

The relations between generalized self-efficacy, confidence for the six Holland themes, and academic performance as measured by ACT scores and GPA were examined separately for female and male college students. It was predicted that for both women and men, generalized self-efficacy would be more strongly related to the average of confidence scores for the six Holland themes than to confidence for any single Holland theme. In addition, it was predicted that all forms of self-efficacy would be related to academic performance. Findings revealed a particularly strong relation between generalized self-efficacy and Investigative and Enterprising confidence for both women and men; in addition, for men, generalized self-efficacy was strongly related to Conventional confidence as well. ACT score was related to Investigative confidence for both men and women but not to generalized self-efficacy or confidence for the other Holland themes. However, GPA showed no substantial relations with either form of self-efficacy.